Boom Island Survivors Memorial

To honor the strength and courage of survivors of sexual violence, Boom Island Park will be home to the Survivor’s Memorial. The permanent memorial is the first of its kind in the nation.

The Memorial contains a collection of mosaics that represent the trauma and the aftermath of being assaulted, from a survivor’s point-of-view.

Sarah Super, founder of Break the Silence and a rape survivor, has been working on making the Memorial a reality with 10 other survivors since 2015. The project was inspired by her own experience with sexual violence, along with the stories she's heard from others since she started publicly sharing her story.

After finally being approved by the city in 2017, Super collaborated with mosaic artist Lori Greene and Farber Landscape Architects to bring her vision to life. More than 1,000 people and organizations donated to make the memorial possible.

The 30-foot-wide memorial aims to translate the aftermath and trauma that occurs after sexual violence from the survivor’s perspective. It also symbolically conveys its message: The mosaic aims to portray that broken pieces can be put back together to create a whole and beautiful thing, while the ripple effect, which is sculpted into the landscape of the park, magnifies the power of “breaking the silence.” A circle of benches around the memorial will allow visitors to sit and break silence together.

“The Memorial will honor the courage and strength of survivors. It will serve as a powerful symbol of our community’s ability to bear witness to survivors, to validate and affirm survivors, and to stand in solidarity with survivors,” says Super. “The Memorial will also bring greater awareness to the prevalence of sexual violence in society and the pressing need to change our culture.”

The Survivor’s Memorial will break ground tomorrow at 10 a.m. at Boom Island Park, near the footbridge to Nicollet Island.

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